Posted on 2007-10-23
Dr. James Watson is a brilliant scientist.
I remember back in 1963 reading excerpts from a thick book in the library at Delaware Trails Elementary School about the discovery of DNA. I was fascinated and committed the terms "ribonucleic acid" and "deoxyribonucleic acid" to memory and never forgot them.
In the many years since, the use of DNA technology in forensics and the discoveries of the Human Genome Project, have recalled to mind that sunny afternoon spent quietly reading about the building blocks -- the double helix, to be more accurate -- of human life. I've wondered from time to time what course my life would have taken had I been encouraged to pursue my active interest in science and botany.
Yesterday, I was disappointed to learn that Watson, one of the heroes of my childhood fascination with science, is -- and there's no nice way to put this -- a racist asshole.
Watson was part of the team awarded the 1962 Nobel Prize in Medicine for the discovery of DNA, but this week he put his foot in it with some particularly obnoxious, anachronistic statements about "race" and intelligence that have cost him dearly.
Once one of America's brightest scientific minds, Watson remarked that he is "gloomy about the prospect of Africa [because] all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours - whereas all the testing says not really."
Icing on the cake was his lament that, although he hoped that all "races" were created equal in terms of intelligence, "people who have to deal with black employees find this not true."
You know, I'm an occasional editor on Wikipedia, that pretentious online, piece-of-crap populist "encyclopedia," and I encounter racism all the time. White (and Asian) editors all the time are writing, in discussions and articles treating "race" and I.Q., shitloads of thinly veiled POV crap about black folks being inherently inferior, and whitewashing, appropriating, edit-warring, and generally lying about our contributions to world history and civilization as a people. Wikipedia is a cesspool of white-bwoi ignorance, arrogance, presumption and pretention -- white supremacist ideology and practice thriving and feeding upon itself in cyberspace among the primarily 40 and under set.
So, reading this tripe from an old cracKKKah fart in his 70's whose countenance reminds me of the nearly skeletonized faces of old, hard-luck, white-trash rednecks leering at me from the lynching photos on vintage postcards was certainly no shock. Still, it's a low-down dirty shame to see one of God's creatures so amply endowed with intellect so tragically and abysmally lacking in fundamental intelligence.
You see, I'm what people call a genius, and I have the IQ scores to prove it. The thing is, though, in reflecting upon the black folks I've known throughout my life, there are any number whom I consider my intellectual equals or superiors -- everyday black folks -- friends, fellow students, activists, professionals, blue-collar workers, preachers and scoundrels.
So, I know what Watson apparently cannot grasp -- what a load of bullshit I.Q. tests are, and that theories about "race" and intelligence carry about as much weight as a fart in the wind.
Speaking of old farts in the wind, Watson's idiotic comments -- and he's made similar remarks before -- properly have alienated him from the credible academic and scientific community, who've left him to twist. In response, Watson issued a semi-apology. No, he didn't admit to being an imperfect human being, confess his own racism and ask forgiveness. He did, one supposes, what little he could manage. He stated,"I cannot understand how I could have said what I am quoted as having said."
Dunno know about you, but my reaction when I read it was, "What? Like you were having some kind of out-of-body experience, and were just an innocent bystander when some jerk who looks like you put his foot in your mouth?" Maybe Watson was replaced by a doppelganger, or maybe his body was taken over by pod people while he slept the night before his presentation, like in that B-movie horror film classic "The Body Snatchers."
Whatever his vague excuse, Watson's British book tour has been cancelled, the Science Museum in London dumped a sold-out lecture of his, and he's been suspended from his position at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York, a position he's held for 40 years or more. And the University of Edinburgh rescinded an invitation to Watson to a -- get this -- "Enlightenment Lecture" on "DNA, Dolly and other dangerous ideas."
(Awkward.)
And it serves him right. Being twisted enough to believe blacks are inherently inferior is one thing. My years on the planet have taught me that's something more whites than not actually and deeply believe (though most are in utter public, if not private, denial about that fairly sad fact). It is another thing entirely, however, to be stupid enough to reveal such blatant and fundamental racism in a public forum and propound such nonsense as fact.
In fairness, Watson subsequently stated "there is no scientific basis" for the views he earlier expressed, but it was too late. The simple truth is you can't run around insulting an entire group of people on the basis of skin color, telling the world they're essentially subhuman and doomed to poverty, exploitation and disease because it's some perverse sort of birthright or Curse of Ham.
At least you can't say such things and get away with it. There's just no way you can sling sh*t with clean hands. One way or another, you gonna come up stank.
Watson, you may be a Nobel Prize winner, but let me pull your coat: This is the 21st century, and you're an anachronism -- a soul-sick, racist dolt. Odds are you're too old and mired in white supremacist dogma to be willing to, let alone be capable of, change. And, frankly, I couldn't care less. You're likely headed straight to Hell anyway. But do the planet, and particularly our vulnerable, impressionable youth a favor.
The next time you feel moved to comment publicly on the putative inherent inferiority of my people -- and just so there's no misunderstanding, I'll spell it out in elementary, single-syllable words that even a Nobel laureate can understand:
Don't. Just shut the fuck up and take your dumb ass home.
